Scrubbing sponge for drinking vessels



June 2, 1964 G. E. WISE 3,135,003

SCRUBBING SPONGE FOR DRINKING VESSEL-S Filed Dec. 30, 1960 236- INVENTOR.

United States Patent 3,135,003 SCRUBBING SPONGE FOR DRINKING VESSELS Glenn E. Wise, 501 13th St. NW., Washington 4, DC. Filed Dec. 30, 1960, Ser. No. 79,863 2 Claims. (Cl. 15-244) This invention relates to a sponge device, and, more specifically, to a sponge which is particularly designed for scrubbing debris, such as lipstick and cigarette ashes, from the rims and interior surfaces, respectively, of drinking cups, glasses, and the like.

My invention includes; a shaped sponge body, a base plate against which the sponge body is held, a coupling ring for removably holding the sponge body against the mounting plate, and means for securing the mounting plate to a surface.

In commercial eating establishments, cups and glasses are often returned from the dining area to the washing area in a very dirty condition. Liquid stains in such vessels are not too difficult for a mechanical dishwasher to remove, but it is almost impossible for the dishwasher, unassisted, to completely remove cigarette ashes or lipstick left on the surfaces of some of the cups and glasses. Most establishments solve this problem of cleaning overly dirty drinking vessels by employing one of two methods; either by rewashing the troublesome vessels one or more times until they come out clean, or by stationing an employee at the input side of the dishwashing machine to manually scrub loose the objectionable debris so that it will be completely removed by the machine during the Washing operation. My invention is intended for use in the latter method.

One object of my invention is to provide a shaped sponge which will effectively scrub the lip and liquid engaging surfaces of drinking vessels.

Another object of my invention is to provide a vessel scrubbing sponge which can be easily mounted in and removed from its use position.

Another object of my invention is to provide a sponge device having a scrubbing portion which may be easily replaced by a like portion when it is no longer fit for use.

Other objects will be apparent from the remainder of the specification and from the drawings.

In the drawings which form a part of this application:

FIGURE 1 is a front elevation of one embodiment;

FIGURE 2 is an elevation taken from the left-hand side of FIGURE 1, and showing a drinking glass in scrubbing position thereon in dotted lines;

FIGURE 3 is a sectional view taken on line 33 of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 4 is a front elevation of the preferred embodiment of my invention;

FIGURE 5 is an elevation taken from the left-hand side of FIGURE 4; and

FIGURE 6 is a sectional view taken on the line 6-6 of FIGURE 4.

Referring now, by reference numerals, to the first em bodiment shown in FIGURES 1 to 3, there is seen a sponge device specifically designed for scrubbing a particular type of drinking glass. This sponge device is composed of four distinct parts: a shaped sponge body, made from a natural sponge or from a synthetic cellular spongelike material, designated generally as 7; a mounting plate, which I prefer to make from a plastic material, but which may also be made from metal or wood, designated as 8; a suction cup, made from pliable rubber, or the like, designated by 9; and a coupling ring, which I prefer to make from a plastic material, but which may be formed in metal, designated generally as 10.

More particularly, the sponge body 7 comprises a glass entering portion 11 which is frusto-conical for a major portion of its length, as at 12, but which becomes cylindrical near its attached end, as at 13, an annular rim scrubbing portion as at 14, and a connection and backing portion, as at 15. This sponge body is intended to scrub a particular type of drinking glass, the interior contours of which would be substantially identical to the exterior contour of glass entering portion 11, but which would be of slightly smaller dimensions so that the portion 11 would be required to compress slightly if such a glass were pushed on to it for scrubbing as to be described. The portions 11, 14 and 15 meet so as to provide an annular groove 16 into which the rim of such a glass may enter. The width of a portion of this groove is narrower than the rim of a glass of the type which this particular embodiment is intended to scrub so that it is necessary for portion 14 to also compress slightly when such a glass is pushed full on to portion 11 for scrubbing. The bottom 17 of groove 16 is provided for scrubbing the rim edge of the aforementioned glass.

The mounting plate 8 is circular in shape and on its outside edge it is threaded, as at 18, for a purpose to be described shortly. On the back side 19 of the mounting plate is formed a dome-shaped recess 20. In said recess is glued, or otherwise fastened, a conventional suction cup 9. The purpose of the suction cup is to hold my invention on a substantially smooth surface such as the rear wall or top side of a sink, or the like. The front side 21 of the mounting plate 8 engages the rear side 22 of the sponge bodys backing portion 15, and the entire sponge body is held in place on the mounting plate by means of the coupling ring.

The coupling ring, more particularly, is annular in shape, and has a straight wall portion 23 merging into an inwardly curved Wall portion 24, as best seen in FIGURE 3. On the inside of Wall portion 23 are formed threads 25 which are designed to mate with threads 18 aforementioned.

To assemble this embodiment for use, the suction cupcarrying mounting plate is pressed, cup first, on to a smooth surface. Then the sponge body is placed against the front side 21 of the mounting plate. Next, the coupling ring is passed around the sponge body, as seen in FIGURE 3, and is screwed on the mounting plate by engaging the threads 25 and 18. The coupling ring is turned on until the rim scrubbing portion 14 of the sponge body is compressed enough, between the mounting plate, and the curved wall portion 24 of the coupling ring, to frictionally keep the sponge body from turning relative to the mounting plate. (To remove. the sponge body to wash or replace it, the aforementioned steps would be performed in reverse order.) The glass scrubbing-embodiment in now ready for use. v

T 0 use this embodiment, a user would merely engage a glass, of the type for which this embodiment is designed, such as that designated generally as G in FIG-. URE 2, over the sponge body until the rim edge of the glass bottomed against the bottom 17 of groove 16. Then the user would continue to press the glass against the sponge body, and would rotate it relative thereto. Then, during such rotation, the compressed portion 11 would be scrubbing the debris loose from the inside surface of the glass, the bottom 17 would be scrubbing the rim edge of the glass, and the compressed portion 14 would be scrubbing the lip-engaging rim of the glass. A few turns of the glass relative to the sponge body are normally sufiicient to loosen the worst adhering debris. Once the debris is loosened the glass is removed from the sponge body and sent on to the dishwasher.

The description of the make-up, assembly, and the operation of the glass scrubbing embodiment is now complete.

The preferred embodiment of my invention is seen in FIGURES 4 to 6, and this embodiment is designed to scrub a particular type of drinking cup. This embodiment is also composed of four major parts. These parts are: a shaped sponge body, designated generally by 7a since it is quite similar to sponge body 7 a mounting plate 8a, which is identical to mountingplate 8 -of the first embodiment; a suction cup 9a which is identical to suction cup 9 of the first embodiment; and a coupling ring 10a, generally designated, which is similar to coupling ring 10. Since the suction cups and mounting plates of both embodiments are identical, the description of these parts hereinabove will cover both embodiments. The sponge body 7a and the coupling ring 10a, however, differ somewhat from body 7 and ring 10, respectively, and they will be described in detail.

The sponge body 7a comprises a cup entering portion 11a, in the shape of a flattened dome, a substantially annular rim scrubbing portion, as at 14a, and a connecting backing portion, as at 15a. This sponge body is especially and specifically designed for scrubbing a particular type of drinking cup, the interior contours of which would be substantially identical to the exterior contour of portion 11a, but which would be of slightly smaller dimensions so that the portion 11a must compress slightly when such a cup is pushed on to it for scrubbing. The portions 11a, 14a, and 15a meet so as to form an annular groove 16a into which the rim of such a cup may enter. The width of a portion of this groove is narrower than the rim of the cup of the type which this embodiment is intended to scrub so that it is necessary for portion 14a to also compress slightly when said cup is pushed full on to portion 11a for scrubbing. The bottom 17a of groove 16a is provided for scrubbing the rim edge of the aforementioned cup. Notches 26 and 27 are formed in opposite sides of portion 14a. These notches are provided so that a cups handle may be placed in either one or the other of them during the scrubbing of the cup. If at least one such notch was not provided, the rim edge of a cup could not be made to bottom against notch bottom 17a, since the cups handle would interfere by striking either the portion 14a or the coupling ring.

The coupling ring 10a is substantially annular in shape and has a straight wall portion 23a merging into a curved wall portion 24a, as best seen in FIGURE 6. On the inside of wall portions 23a are formed threads 25a which are designed to mate with threads 18a on mounting plate 8a. Notches 28 and 29 are formed in opposite sides of the wall portions 23a and 24a, and these latter notches cooperate with the aforementioned notches 26 and 27 in providing working space for a cups handle while the cup is being scrubbed on my invention. It will be noted that the notches 28 and 29 in the coupling ring 1011 are deeper and wider than the notches 26 and 27 in portion 14a, whereby the exposed edge portions of the notches 26 and 27 provide a soft buffer against which a vessels handle can strike when the vessel is rotated on portion 11a. If notches 28 and 29 were the same size as notches 26 and 27 a handle might accidentally strike and be broken against the hard edges of notches 28 and 29.

This embodiment of my invention is assembled in the same way as the first embodiment. The only additional step required is that the notches in the coupling ring must be aligned with the notches in portion 14a before this embodiment is usable.

The method of using thisembodiment is very similar to the method of using the first embodiment, the only diflerences being that a cups handle must be entered into one or the other of the pairs of notches provided for such entry, and in the fact that the cup can be rotated only as limited by the cups handle striking the side walls of the notches in which it is located. Obviously this second embodiment could be employed to scrub two-handled vessels if such vessels conformed, in shape, with the sponge body 7a, and if the handles were substantially opposite each other, as in some soup dishes.

I have shown the particularly-shaped sponge bodies 7 and 7a for illustrative purposes only. It is obvious that similar sponge bodies can be produced for scrubbing cups or glasses, or the like, formed in a great variety of shapes. It is also obvious that both of the sponge bodies 7 and 7a could easily be mounted on a single mounting plate for compactness, and that means other than suction cups might be employed to attach the mounting plates to a support.

Having now described both embodiments, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. A particularly-shaped sponge body comprising: a backing portion; an elongated inner portion; and an annular outer portion, said inner and outer portions being attached to said backing portion and extending in the same direction therefrom, said outer portion surrounding and being spaced radially outwardly from said inner portion to provide an open groove between said inner and outer portions adapted to receive the rim of a handle-including vessel for scrubbing, said inner portion extending from said backing portion farther than said outer portion; and notch means in said annular portion adapted to receive and allow substantial movement of a handle of said vessel therein when said vessel surrounds and is rotated on said inner portion with the rim of said vessel located in said groove.

2. The combination of claim 1 including means attached to said sponge body for removably attaching said body to a support, said last-mentioned means including additional handle-receiving notch means aligned with the notch means in said annular portion, said additional notch means being deeper and wider than the notch means in said annular portion.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 781,773 Goff Feb. 7, 1905 1,936,259 Parmer Nov. 21, 1933 2,270,744 Singer Jan. 20, 1942 2,490,650 Reckler Dec. 6, 1949 2,932,277 Borah Apr. 12, 1960 FOREIGN PATENTS 47,927 Germany July 25, 1889 162,869 Great Britain May 12, 1921 188,174 Great Britain Nov. 9, 1922 366,817 Italy Jan. 9, 1939 1,019,122 France Oct. 22, 1952 

1. A PARTICULARLY-SHAPED SPONGE BODY COMPRISING: A BACKING PORTION; AN ELONGATED INNER PORTION; AND AN ANNULAR OUTER PORTION, SAID INNER AND OUTER PORTIONS BEING ATTACHED TO SAID BACKING PORTION AND EXTENDING IN THE SAME DIRECTION THEREFROM, SAID OUTER PORTION SURROUNDING AND BEING SPACED RADIALLY OUTWARDLY FROM SAID INNER PORTION TO PROVIDE AN OPEN GROOVE BETWEEN SAID INNER AND OUTER PORTIONS ADAPTED TO RECEIVE THE RIM OF A HANDLE-INCLUDING VESSEL FOR SCRUBBING, SAID INNER PORTION EXTENDING FROM SAID BACKING PORTION FARTHER THAN SAID OUTER PORTION; AND NOTCH MEANS IN SAID ANNULAR PORTION ADAPTED TO RECEIVE AND ALLOW SUBSTANTIAL MOVEMENT OF A HANDLE OF SAID VESSEL THEREIN WHEN SAID VESSEL SURROUNDS AND IS ROTATED ON SAID INNER PORTION WITH THE RIM OF SAID VESSEL LOCATED IN SAID GROOVE. 